It’s not quite 8 weeks but curiosity got the better of me so I did another DXA scan which seems an appropriate time for a quick review.
Body Composition:
Weight: increased from 68.2kg to 69.9kg. A gain of 1.7kg.
Body Fat: dropped from 18.7% to 17.5%. A loss of 1.2%.
Lean Mass: increased from 53.03kg to 55.22kg. A gain of 2.19kg.
I’m pleased with the lean mass gain which is actually noticeable but a little disappointed with the percentage of fat lost.
Sleep:
I am definitely sleeping better and waking more refreshed but I still don’t feel like I’m getting quite enough sleep. Partly due to training in the evening, making it difficult to wind down and get to sleep as early as I’d like.
Food Cravings & Meal Frequency:
I was following a very low carb paleo diet before starting the reset which meant that I had no ‘carb cravings’ to deal with. I’d also been intermittent fasting so I found it very easy to transition to two meals a day without feeling hungry.
Mental Clarity:
This is difficult to quantify but I do feel like my head is ‘clearer’ and my ability to focus has improved.
Time to tweak?
I’m making progress but I was hoping for a better result on the fat loss front. This is traditionally the point where I start to make changes hoping to improve results and take things a little too far!
Over the past few days I have been thinking about my extremely low carbohydrate intake over the past 18 months and wondering if perhaps increasing this from virtually zero to somewhere between 100g–200g might help to shake things up and support my workouts. I have nothing to back this up with other than the feeling that changing my macronutrient breakdown after this length of time might be a catalyst to get fat loss on track again.
There is of course a very real danger that my expectations are simply too high. Perhaps I should be pleased with the progress made so far and keep at it?
Options
As I see it, I have three options:
1. Continue with the leptin reset protocol for a further 8 weeks then reassess
2. Move on to the post Leptin Rx phase
3. Start playing around with the ratios
I appear to be showing some signs of leptin sensitivity but there were some issues with my blood work from 9th April and there is little point in a new set of labs so soon. This is making me hesitant to switch to the post Leptin Rx phase. I am also very tempted to start tweaking the ratios but I don’t want it to be guess work which at the moment it would be.
This leaves me with only one sensible option, to continue with the leptin reset and review in another 8 weeks but I’d be very interested to hear other people’s opinions and experiences…
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Hi – glad I found your blog. I’m also blogging about my experience with the Leptin Rx and CT. In my experience so far, improvements are evident but it’s slow going. This is no quick fix. Better than the direction I was going though, so I’m going to persevere. It’s actually a lot easier than all the carb cravings and blood sugar instability I was dealing with before the Rx. Sometimes I forget about that, being months ago. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for comment Lanie. It’s easy to get frustrated at the rate of progress but we have to remind ourselves that however small the steps, we are moving in the right direction and they will add up!
[...] know I said I wouldn’t do this but I’m not happy with my progress. I have been aiming for exceptional in how I look, feel and [...]
[...] first step is to calculate my Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) As I know my lean mass from the DEXA scan I did recently, I can use the Katch-McArdle method for calculating RMR. Katch-McArdle RMR= 370 [...]